Restaurant Guy Savoy

The most fundamentally French restaurant in town, Guy Savoy's food is rarely less than perfect. His wine list is probably the city's best, both in breadth and depth, and it's filled with trophy bottles from Savoy's cellar in Paris, as well as a large selection of reasonably priced new-world producers. No matter what you choose, you can depend on Savoy's food being spot-on renditions of the dishes that earned his restaurant three Michelin stars in Paris (it has two here), such as oysters en gelee (fresh kumamotos atop oyster cream topped with oyster jelly) and poulet en cocotte, the creamiest, whitest veal on the planet. Savoy features no beef in his Parisian original, but he's proud of his tournedos, as well as the American veal proudly plated and served by the top-notch staff.
• In Caesar's Palace Hotel, 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 731 7286, caesarspalace.com, mains $80-$175, 10-course tasting menu $298. Open Tue-Fri 12 noon-10.30pm, Sat 7.30pm-10.30pm, closed Sun-Mon

Bar Masa

This is only place to go in Las Vegas for sushi and sashimi – when someone else is paying. The quality of the raw ingredients (most flown in from Japan) is an immediate education in the subtleties that comprise a superior Japanese dining experience. The size of your pocket, and your sensibilities, will determine whether you think paying $15 apiece for toro, or $10 apiece for akamutsu (deep-sea snapper), or $34 for a kegani hairy-crab salad is worth it. Ignore the gymnasium feel of the place and be dazzled by the dancing shrimp, whitefish sampling platter, yari ika (squid) or the kanpachi with jalapeño sotomaki – each one more ethereal than the last.
• In the Aria Hotel, 3730 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 590 8580, arialasvegas.com, average mains $26-$38, sushi from $6 per piece, early-evening set menu $49. Open Wed-Sun 5pm-11pm, closed Mon-Tues

CUT

Is this the best steakhouse in Vegas? It certainly serves up the most inventive non-steak dishes. Everything from the pristine oxtail broth to the bone-marrow flan to the hot potato knishes to the lamb chops with a mint-cucumber raita to the thyme-lavender roasted duck to the classic Dover sole are the equal of the prime grass- and corn-fed beef on offer. In fact, some tables skip the steaks entirely and make a meal from the stunning small plates, appetizers and sides. The wine list, under sommelier Lindsey Whipple, has vastly improved in the past two years, both in selection and price.
• In the Palazzo Hotel, 3325 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 607 6300, palazzo.com,starters from $17, steaks from $51 without side orders. Open daily 5.30-10pm (11pm Fri and Sat)

Carnevino

While CUT may be the best overall steakhouse in town, Carnevino probably has the best steaks in the country. Chef Mario Batali and his business partner Joe Bastianich have created an ageing programme for their beef like no other, featuring hand-selected steaks dry-aged in a giant meat locker which turns out beauties ranging from 60 days to six months old! The super-aged strips and porterhouses are designated riservas on the menu and have to be ordered several days in advance – some are almost a year old and attain a ham-like texture and a blue cheese funk that's for aficionados only.
• In the Palazzo Hotel, 3325 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 789 4141, carnevino.com, mains $33-$61, beef tasting menu $120. Open Mon-Sun 12 noon-12 midnight

Estiatorio Milos

Chef/owner Costas Spiliadis seems to be on the premises for a remarkable amount of the time for a man who has restaurants on two continents. This offshoot of the Montreal original (others reside in New York and Athens) has a serene elegance that strikes you as soon as you enter the low-ceilinged, softly lit space, and is detected in every refined, discriminating ingredient placed before you. The two-page menu has 11 appetisers on the left side, five salads and vegetables on the right, and a single heading that says simply From The Sea, leading you to the huge fish/seafood/vegetable counter against the far wall, where the day's catch is displayed for you to peruse and choose from.
• In the Cosmopolitan Hotel, 3708 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 698 7930, estiatoriomilos.com, mains $40-75. Open daily 12 noon-2.30pm and 5.30pm-12 midnight

Joël Robuchon

Paris doesn't have one. Neither does London or New York. Only Vegas has the eponymous dining salon named after and run by "The Chef of the Century", according to Gault Millau in 1990. As stale as the accolade might be, there is nothing tired about the food being turned out at this exquisite, relentlessly French jewel box in the bowels of the MGM Hotel. Bring money, and an appetite, because you'll need both to support the ornate, precise, and highly decorative food being turned out by Joel's chief lieutenant, Claude Le Tohic. Between them, they create seasonal menus of impeccable provenance. Whether it's Australian spiny lobster in a Thai herb broth, or "chaud-froid" (hot-cold) sea urchin on a fennel/potato puree flecked with anise-spiked orange, this is over-the-top cooking that makes no apologies for its extravagance.
• In the MGM Grand Hotel, 3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 891 7358, mgmgrand.com/restaurants, two-course menu $120, three-course menu $160, 16-course tasting menu $425. Open Fri-Sat 5.30pm-10.30pm, Sun-Thur 5.30pm-10pm

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Begin with crisp langoustine fritters served with a smudge of basil pesto. From there the possibilities range from good prosciutto served with toasted tomato bread, ethereal poached kumamoto oysters sitting in their shells in a warm bath of salted butter, to a beautiful piece of sautéed duck liver atop a tiny minced-citrus gratin. L'Atelier is hands-down the favourite "everyday" restaurant of every chef and foodie in Vegas. It's expensive (though far less expensive than its big brother next door – see above), but almost flawless. Every dish highlights what perfectionist chefs – in this case executive chef Steve Benjamin and pastry chef Kamel Guechida – can do with the best ingredients money can buy.
• In the MGM Grand Hotel, 3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 891 7358, mgmgrand.com/restaurants, mains from $59, seasonal discovery tasting menu $155. Open Fri-Sat 5.30pm-10.30pm Sun-Thur 5.30pm-10.30pm

Le Cirque

Executive chef Gregory Pugin took the helm here early in 2011, bringing a modern, lighter sensibility to Le Cirque's food that's long overdue. You can still get classics like blanquette de lapin" and Le Cirque lobster salad, but one bite of his langoustines with caviar, passion fruit, apples and vodka gelée will bring tears to the eyes of even the most jaded gourmets. The service staff is virtually unchanged in 12 years, sommelier Freddy Montandon still charms the ladies while convincing the captains of American industry to order something other than a boring old California cab, and the whole place buzzes with an intimacy that is without peer in Sin City. Save room for Philippe Angibeau's drop-dead desserts.
• In the Bellagio Hotel, 3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 693 8100, bellagio.com/restaurants/le-cirque.aspx, mains $39-$65, seven-course tasting menu $125. Open Tues-Sun 5.30pm-10pm, closed Mon

Picasso

Perhaps the only restaurant in the world where the art detracts from the food, and where you routinely see diners walking around the room and treating it like a mini-museum of the master's works. (Yes, they are all originals.) In the kitchen Julian Serrano's Cal-Ital-Mediterranean cooking has earned him two Michelin stars and a devoted following of foodies, who rave about the sweetest Nantucket scallops you'll ever taste and his various masterful treatments of foie gras. The wine list, overseen by Master Sommelier Robert Smith, is rich with the varietals of Spain and other Mediterranean climes. For food, wine, and decor of this calibre, the tariff – $113 for four courses, $123 for five, plus an amuse-bouche here and a pre-dessert there – is remarkably reasonable.
• In the Bellagio Hotel, 3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 693 8100, bellagio.com/restaurants/picasso.aspx. Open Wed-Mon 5.30-9.30pm, closed Tues

Twist by Pierre Gagnaire

If Robuchon is the most elaborate and Savoy the most elegant of Vegas's great restaurants, Gagnaire matches them for the creativity of its cuisine, which is often as baffling as it is exhilarating. One look at his scallop carpaccio with Campari or mushroom broth zézette tells you that you're in the hands of the enfant terrible of French cooking. The years haven't dimmed Gagnaire's incessant search for astounding edibles and his Nebraska sirloin with escargot sauce and venison ice-cream provides a window into the intellectual curiosity that drives his talent.
• In the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 3752 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 888 881 9367, mandarinoriental.com, mains $44-98, three-course menu $105, six-course tasting menu $189. Open Fri-Sat 6pm-10.30pm, Tues-Thur 6pm-10pm, closed Sun-Mon

• John Curtas is a Vegas-based restaurant critic and food writer. He writes at Eating Las Vegas